Randstad Canada HR Blog

2 Stories that make this a New Year of progress for female executives

After Randstad Canada's Women Shaping Business program we learned a lot about how companies and governments are making efforts toward workplace equality. There were two news stories popped up in the past week that I wanted to share with you all.

Japan looks to turn the tide of female executives

Japan which has historically been one of the least equitable working nations, in terms of female integration on corporate boards and executive level management is looking to change its tune. Starting from the top, Japan’s Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has set a new goal set a goal of increasing the percentage of women in executive positions, reports thinkprogress.com.

Japan is aiming to increase its share of female executives from its current 1.6% to an ambitious 30% by the year 2020.

Record Number of Women in the Fortune 500

According to Catalyst, a non-profit organization, as of Jan. 1, there were 22 women running Fortune 500 companies or 4.4% these include giants like, IBM and PepsiCo. This number is up three-fold from 2002-2003 when there were only seven women in these top positions

For a complete list of female chief executives running Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000, companies, you can visit, catalyst.org.

What these are saying is that policy can help move the goalposts on female executive progress. We've begun to make inroads in the Fortune 500 and if a government like Japan's can set such aggresive goals, what can your municipality or province do?

Have you heard anything that is inspiring you? Share your thoughts with us on Twitter @RandstadCanada